Merton's Correspondence with:

Bourne, Russell

Merton was asked by his friend Rabbi Abraham Heschel, a biblical scholar, in December of 1966 if he was interested in writing an introduction for a new edition of the Bible. The planned book, an annotated and illustrated edition, by Time-Life Books was not published; however, the manuscript for the article was published as a book by the Liturgical Press in 1970 under the essay's title Opening the Bible. Merton had qualms about writing an introduction to the Bible, as he did not consider himself a biblical scholar. Also, in a response to Heschel in 1966/12/12, he mentions that he is "not too happy with big fancy projects organized by the mass media". After his essay was written, he suggested that it was not an adequate introduction, but could fit between the New and Old Testaments. The last couple of letters also mention Merton's literary magazine Monks Pond. Bourne sends him a concrete poem and Merton mentions a plan for an upcoming issue featuring concrete poems exclusively. (Sources: see the enclosed letters and the introduction by Rob Stone to the 1986 edition of Opening the Bible.)

See also the posthumous publication of Merton's essay on the Bible, entitled Opening the Bible (see the 1986 edition for an introduction by Rob Stone), and "Ninevah to Calvary: Thomas Merton and a Spiritual Geography of the Bible" by William Apel, published in The Merton Annual, Volume 13 (October 2000): pp. 235-244; and see also the "Stone, Naomi Burton" file.